Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Magpie is an app that offers consumers the opportunity to accomplish a series of actions, earning an electronic “badge” for each activity completed, and then a “superbadge” for having completed the entire series. This is true interdisciplinary work from three very separate and different departments across the university, working collaboratively to create the Magpie app. An outside client was brought in to partner with and collaborate with visual communications design to create the concept behind the scavenger hunt/educational aspects of this project, design the visual elements and structure, and to be the client for the computer science project course. The methods included interdisciplinary communication between computer science and design, design and business, computer science and the outside client, and computer science, design, and business communication with internal clients and entrepreneurial competitions. The introduction of an innovative entrepreneurial endeavor from within a regional comprehensive university with limited funding. This endeavor allowed for a grass roots campaign in collaborative research to build and maintain the prototype product. Because of the educational aspect of this project, technologies used and that students are the main creators, Magpie has gone through four iterations and taken three and a half years and five teams to complete.